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By Root 1677 0

a cavity a hundred metres long entirely lined with timber. They began by trying to pull on the cable so as to lodge one tub securely at the bottom, because if the other were to come down as they were climbing up, it would crush them to death. But nothing would move, something must be in the way and preventing the mechanism from working properly. They decided to risk it. Not daring to hold on to the cable, which was in their way, they scrabbled up the smooth wood, tearing their nails as they went. Étienne followed behind Catherine, stopping her with his head when she slid back, her hands bleeding. Suddenly they found themselves up against some fractured beams which were blocking the incline. The earth had shifted, and the rubble was preventing them from going any higher. Fortunately there was a doorway there, which led out into a road.

Ahead of them they were astonished to see the glow of a lamp. A man was angrily shouting at them:

‘More bloody fools with the same bright idea as me!’

They recognized Chaval, who had found himself cut off by the same rock-fall that had filled the incline with rubble; the two comrades who had gone with him had been killed on the way, their skulls smashed open by the rock. Though he had injured his elbow, Chaval had had the courage to crawl back to them to retrieve their lamps and to search them for their sandwiches, to which he helped himself. As he was making his escape, one last collapse behind him had blocked off the roadway.

His first thought was to promise himself that he wasn’t going to share his provisions with these people who had suddenly appeared from nowhere. He would sooner kill them! Then he in his turn realized who it was, and as his anger subsided, he began to laugh with malicious glee:

‘Ah, it’s you, Catherine! It’s all ended in tears, and now you want to come back to your old man! Good! Good! Well, we’ll have ourselves a little party then.’

He pretended not to notice Étienne. The latter, shocked by this chance encounter, had immediately put a protective arm round Catherine as she huddled closer to him. Nevertheless there was no way round the situation, and so, as if he and his comrade had parted on the friendliest terms an hour ago, he simply asked him:

‘Have you tried the far end? Can’t we get out through the coal-faces?’

‘Oh yeah, why not? They’ve collapsed, too, so we’re blocked on both sides. We might as well be in a bloody mousetrap…But if you’re good at diving, you can always go back down the incline the way you came.’

Sure enough, the water was still rising: they could hear it lapping. Their means of retreat had already been cut off. And he was right, it was like a mousetrap, a section of roadway blocked at both ends by massive rock-falls. There was no way out. The three of them were immured.

‘So you’ll stay?’ Chaval asked in mock-cheerful fashion. ‘Well, you couldn’t have made a better decision. And if you don’t bother me, I shan’t bother you. There’s plenty of room in here for two men…And then we’ll soon see who dies first. Unless somebody comes to rescue us, of course, but that doesn’t seem very likely.’

Étienne went on:

‘What about tapping? Maybe someone might hear us.’

‘I’m fed up tapping…Here! You have a go yourself with this stone.’

Étienne took the piece of sandstone that Chaval had already half worn away and went to the coal-seam at the far end and beat out the miners’ tattoo, that long sequence of taps with which miners signal their whereabouts whenever they are in danger. Then he put his ear to the rock and listened. He kept at it, tapping it out twenty times or more. There was no response.

During this time Chaval had been coolly affecting to set up home. First, he lined his three lamps up against the wall; only one of them was lit, the others were for later. Then he set his two remaining sandwiches down on a piece of timbering. It was his dresser; he could last two days on that little lot if he was careful. He turned round and said:

‘Half’s for you, you know, Catherine. If the hunger gets too much for you.’

She said nothing. For her it was